Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker breeds across northern and eastern North American forests and migrates south for the winter, unlike most resident woodpeckers. Its most recognizable sign is not its plumage but its feeding work: tidy horizontal rows of shallow holes drilled in tree bark.

In the hand or at close range, its black-and-white striped face, red forehead patch, and subtle pale yellow underparts distinguish it from other small woodpeckers sharing its range.

• Face: bold black-and-white stripes running through the eye and cheek
• Forehead: red patch on both sexes; males also show a red throat, which females lack
• Back: black with white barring and a long white wing patch visible at rest and in flight
• Underparts: pale with a faint yellow wash, giving the species its name
• Vs. Red-naped Sapsucker: Yellow-bellied shows a solid white throat border and less red bleeding into the nape, unlike the red nape patch of Red-naped Sapsucker

Males have a red throat and forehead; females typically show a white throat with only the red forehead patch. Juveniles are mottled brown and lack the clean black-white-red adult pattern until their first fall or winter. The species has a single complete annual molt after breeding, with a partial molt in some individuals before spring.

Breeds in deciduous and mixed forest across Canada, the northeastern United States, and the Appalachians, then migrates to spend winter in the southeastern United States, Mexico, and Central America. It is one of the few truly migratory woodpecker species in North America.

Feeds heavily on tree sap, drilling neat horizontal rows of wells in bark and returning repeatedly to lap up sap and trapped insects; it also eats insects and fruit. Nests are excavated in live or dead deciduous trees, often the same tree used in prior years. Its call is a nasal, cat-like mewing note, and its drumming has an irregular, stuttering rhythm distinct from steady drumming woodpeckers.